Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.

Before yesterdayN8GNJ.org

N8GNJ's Meadow Day 2023 Experiment

By: Steve Stroh

25 June 2023 at 22:30

Wow... it's been way too long since my last post on this blog.

Disclaimer - In what I’m describing in this post, to avoid any confusion that I’m trying to claim that any of this involves Amateur Radio, I decided to call this experiment Meadow Day (1).

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Overview

In Zero Retries 0104 Request to Send, Starlink Field Day? I mentioned casually:

Now that I’m a Starlink customer, I consider communications with little terrestrial infrastructure required to be a mostly solved problem, especially when you factor in the increasingly capable battery plus solar units providing power. The combination of the Starlink hardware, battery plus solar, and Starlink subscription isn’t cheap… but it’s amazingly capable… in fact, a paradigm change. But that’s a story for a future issue of Zero Retries. Teaser - Imagine an app that ran on a laptop or Raspberry Pi that connected to another (roaming) Starlink terminal (on battery power), transferred a large file, and then “logged the contact”?

As I woke up yesterday morning (2023-06-24), I thought briefly about ARRL Field Day (2). Because of recent family events, I haven’t been able to devote much time to preparation for Field Day activities, and couldn't devote the entire day to attending a local Field Day event. But I did have a few hours… and the idea came to me fully formed, that I actually could try out “Starlink Field Day” as a proof of concept. I decided that the goal would be to "work" a few Amateur Radio Operators using broadband Internet connectivity via Starlink.

Again - to avoid any confusion that what I'm describing here involves Amateur Radio, I decided to call this experiment Meadow Day.

Right after morning coffee time I assembled the various pieces I would need and hauled them out of N8GNJ Labs into the middle of my large yard, and started plugging them all together. To my delight… but not quite surprise, it all worked.

What I wanted to test out was, was it practical to “deploy” a Starlink system in “emergency” conditions - on battery power? Short answer, Yes. Even though it was overcast, the solar panel output at least 20 watts, and when there were “widely scattered sunbursts” the solar panel put out as much as 80 watts. The Starlink required typical 60 watts, so the battery on the EB3A trended down slowly.

It worked surprisingly well. I recorded the notes for this post using the temporary Starlink connection as described, and completed the post with the "expedient" Starlink connection that is my sole Internet connectivity in N8GNJ Labs and my office.

Major elements of my Meadow Day "station:

Starlink terminal - Starlink antenna (Dishy McFlatface), Starlink indoor unit (power supply / Wi-Fi access point), and the Starlink Ethernet adapter.
Bluetti EB3A battery / power supply
Generic 100 watt solar panel
Cisco VOIP telephone (acquired as surplus)
Macbook Air laptop with USB headset
Table, chair, beverage, logging sheet

Similarities with Field Day:

Simulate emergency conditions such as loss of power and other infrastructure.
Communicate using only what you can carry or transport.
Set up a communications facility (station) independent of existing communications infrastructure. While it's allowed in the Field Day rules to use an established Amateur Radio station, the intent is "get out into the field" to set up a temporary communications facility (which is what I chose to do for Meadow Day).
Communicate "out of region" to bypass assumed loss of local communications infrastructure.
Have fun doing so.

Differences with Field Day:

I had no desire to accumulate contacts for "points" or other aspects of the overall contest structure of Field Day.
I was only going to operate for a few hours.
Field in my case was my house's yard, which is ~ 1 acre.
Meadow Day was going to use technology of 2023 - Starlink, laptop, VOIP telephone, video conferencing, and a portable battery bank being charged with a solar panel.

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Photos

Basics of Meadow Day:

Set up portable table and a camp chair
Set up solar panel supplying power to portable battery bank
Set up Starlink terminal in the yard (remote from the desk)
Set up VOIP phone (connect to Ethernet adapter on Starlink)
Set up laptop (connect to Starlink Wi-Fi)
Connect to a number of friends using various videoconference systems (as the most demanding test of broadband capability).

N8GNJ Operating Position for Meadow Day 2023
Photo by Tina Stroh KD7WSF

N8GNJ Operating Position Desktop 1
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

N8GNJ Operating Position Desktop 2
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Bluetti EB3A Display (poor visibility in direct sunlight)
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Generic 100 Watt Solar Panel
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

The solar panel was casually positioned, leaning on a corner of the table. It was not optimized for angle or orientation, and it was a bit overcast. I have verified that in direct sunlight, it does generate the rated 100 watts (~12 Volts @ ~8.3 Amps).

Bluetti EB3A Status via iPhone App (via Bluetooth)
Screenshot by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Cisco VOIP Phone Configuring Itself
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Funny story about this Cisco VOIP phone... I bought a small lot of these from someone six months to a year ago. I just grabbed this one out of the bin I had stored them in, and intended this to be just a "prop" for this story. For fun, because I had an Ethernet port available, I plugged it in. To my amazement, it connected to the host system (that this phone was removed from) and configured itself! I picked up the handset and got a "dialtone" (which was likely generated internally by the phone) and then dialed a couple of digits, and it worked. Not only were these phones not wiped of their configuration, but these phone's MAC addresses apparently weren't deleted from the host system. I'm sure that I could have dialed out with this phone, but I didn't want any accusation of "hacking" the host system. But it was obvious that VOIP works completely normally with Starlink.

Starlink Power Supply and Wi-Fi Access Point
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Dishy McFlatface "deployed" (oriented Northwest)
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

This is the stand that each Dishy McFlatface (yes, that's the actual product name) is shipped with. It's intended as a starter as Starlink works best with an unobstructed view of the sky, which generally dictates a roof or tower mount. I was lucky that I have a large yard with few tall obstructions.

Approximate view of the sky of Dishy McFlatface. Note minor tree obstruction at bottom.
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Starlink Status (1) via iPhone App (via Wi-Fi)
Screenshot by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Note that the phone is in Airplane mode - Wi-Fi connectivity only.

Starlink Status 2 via iPhone App (via Wi-Fi)
Screenshot by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

For approximately the first 24 hours of operation, in a combination of downloading data from the Starlink satellites, trying different azimuth / elevation settings (Dishy has both attitude and rotational motors, though they're rarely used), and and observing outages with various satellites, Dishy will eventually orient itself to provide optimum connectivity. My Dishy orients itself to the Northwest where there are few obstructions.

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Contacts

One goal of Meadow Day was to utilize a number of different videoconference systems. Like almost all broadband Internet access systems (other than fiber), Starlink prioritizes downlink speeds over uplink speeds, so it was an interesting test to see if the various videoconference systems would work acceptably on Starlink, especially in this ad-hoc quick setup.

Prior to recording the following screenshot images, I verbally asked each participant for their permission to record a screenshot, and all agreed.

Contact 1 - Cale Mooth K4ACK via (Google Gmail) email

My first Meadow Day contact was to Cale Mooth K4ACK to try to set up a "contact", but he was busy and replied back to me later in the day. But his reply confirmed that there were no issues in using email via Starlink even with the quick setup.

Contacts 2 and 3 - Ken Koster N7IPB (left) and Bruce Miller KC7IAY (right) via Jitsi videoconference